Friday, March 30, 2007

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

This item was on our "Duh!" page-a-day calendar this morning, and I thought it pertinent to our current national political situation:

Those to whom too much power is given tend to expect so much more. When King Louis XIV of France learned in 1704 that the British had defeated his army, he sent up a wail (since moaned by men with far lower expectations): "How could God do this to me, after all that I have done for him?"

Thursday, March 29, 2007

HEHEHEHEHEHEHE

One day God was looking down at Earth and saw all of the rascally behavior that was going on. So he called one of His angels and sent the angel to Earth for a time.

When he returned, he told God, "Yes, it is bad on Earth; 95% are misbehaving and only 5% are not."

God thought for a moment and said, "Maybe I had better send down a second angel to get another opinion."

So God called another angel and sent him to Earth for a time too. When the angel returned he went to God and said, "Yes, it's true. The Earth is in decline; 95% are misbehaving, but 5% are being good."

God was not pleased. So He decided to e-mail the 5% that were good, because He wanted to encourage them, and give them a little something to help them to keep going.

Do you know what the e-mail said?

No?

Okay, I was just wondering, because I didn't get one either.

Sunday, March 25, 2007


A major research institution has just announced the discovery of the
densest element yet known to science.

The new element has been named "Bushcronium". Bushcronium has one
neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 224 assistant
deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 311. These particles are
held together by dark forces called morons, which are surrounded by
vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

The symbol for Bushcronium is "W."

Bushcronium's mass actually increases over time, as morons randomly
interact with various elements in the atmosphere and become assistant
deputy neutrons in a Bushcronium molecule, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to
believe that Bushcronium is formed whenever morons reach a certain
quantity in concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to
as "Critical Morass."

When catalyzed with money, Bushcronium activates Foxnewsium, an
element that radiates orders of magnitude more energy, albeit as
incoherent noise, since it has half as many peons but twice as many
morons.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

THOUGHTS FROM NEIL YOUNG



(picture found at The Age)

I thought you might enjoy reading some of these pearls of wisdom from a guy who happens to be one of my favorite artists and personalities of all time. Yeah, I know, sometimes when he sings he sounds like a dying vacuum cleaner or like an old woman, but what the hell. The guy can rock, and in recent years, his life has really rocked. If you haven't seen his movie "Heart of Gold"... well, ya gotta see it! Talk about a person who is full of love and understanding. Wow! Anyway...

I'll be back in about a week or ten days. There are 673 days to go re. the Bush administration, and if fortune smiles, maybe I can be back in time to do a special and appropriate piece on Sunday March 25... when there are 666 days left. See you all then!

What I've Learned: Neil Young
Legend, 60, Woodside, California
Interviewed by Cal Fussman
From Esquire

A best moment in music? Sometimes when I'm playing my guitar, I get to a point where it gets very cold and icy inside me. It's very refreshing. Every breath is like you're at the North Pole. Your head starts to freeze. Your inhalations are big-more air than you ever thought there is starts pouring in. There's something magical about it. Sometimes when it happens, you wonder if you're gonna be okay. Can you handle it?

Yes, there was something good that came out of having polio as a kid. Walking.

The sound of a harmonica hits you directly. There's no language barrier.

The wisest person I ever met had to be my companion in the hospital. I was recovering from complications after an operation to remove an aneurism in my brain. She was about eighty-five years old and maybe five feet tall. An old black lady from South Carolina. This young nurse wasn't really in touch with what she was doing, and the old lady would tell her how to do what she needed to do without telling her. She never talked down to her, just gave examples. I felt that this old woman must be deeply religious, but there was nothing forceful about her. I woke up one morning at a quarter to six and looked out the window. Fog was on the bridge outside the room, and I said, "Well, that's just beautiful." And she said: "Yes, it is." She turned toward me with this eighty-five-year-old face that didn't have a line on it, no strain, nothing, and she said: "So the master's not taking you. It's not your turn."

Courage is a mindless thing. People say, "Wow! How could you do that?" And you say, "How could I not do that?"

It's like having two eyes. You either look through one eye or you look through the other. Or you look through both of them. Sex is sex. Love is love. Love and sex is clear vision.

There's something peaceful about boxing. If you beat the hell out of a bag or go against a competitor, you and your reflexes will be so at one that you won't have time to think about anything else. You have to be totally yourself to box.

When I was six, I really didn't know what God was. But I did know about Sunday school. I was reading a lot about God, but I was bored. I couldn't wait to get out of Sunday school. God was secondary to the whole thing. But as time went by, I got more and more angry, to the point where I didn't like religion. Hate is a strong word. But I just kept getting angrier and angrier . . . until finally I wasn't angry anymore. I was just peaceful, because I thought: This is not fruitful for me. I rejected the whole thing and found peace in paganism. Jesus didn't go to church. I went way back before Jesus. Back to the forest, to the wheat fields, to the river, to the ocean. I go where the wind is. That's my church.

Epilepsy taught me that we're not in control of ourselves.

Most people think it's the other way around: that time is going faster and we're doing less. But really time seems to be going faster because we're cramming so much into it.

Our education system basically strives for normal -- which is too bad. Sometimes the exceptional is classified as abnormal and pushed aside.

One thing that has come out of having children with cerebral palsy is strength. At first it made me very angry. I was almost looking for a fight. I was always looking for someone to criticize my son in my presence. I would envision different scenarios in which I would become violent reacting to people's reactions to my children -- especially to my severely handicapped child. Eventually, he taught me that was not necessary. Just by being himself. By being a gift to us. He showed us how to have faith and belief and inner strength and to never give up. I look around and see people hurting themselves for no reason. Drinking too much. Taking drugs. Beating themselves up in some psychological way. That really bothers me, knowing that these people got everything they needed to succeed. All they have to do is believe in themselves and in the gifts they're wasting. And yet there are all these other people on the planet who have none of the gifts that are apparent. The gifts are all locked up inside, yet their spirits are so strong that they just keep on going. And I think: This person who has this spirit, why can't he have some of the outward gifts?

Maybe this is a little too thoughtful, but we're all just passengers in a way.

The best is approaching. I have everything -- well, not everything, but a lot of things that I've accumulated through my life experiences. It's easier to communicate through music than it ever has been before. It's easier to play. It's easier to sing. It's easier to write. Nothing is forced.

When my doctor discovered the aneurism in my brain, he said I'd had it for about a hundred years. He told me I'd had it for such a long time that I shouldn't worry about it … but that we'd have to get rid of it immediately. Yeah, that's Zen medicine. He's very wise. I trusted him completely. All the people who took care of me were absolutely the best at what they do -- even though there was a complication, a complication that has a one-in-twenty-seven-hundred chance of happening in my type of operation. They go into your brain through an artery in your thigh. Later, when I was out of the hospital, my leg exploded. I was out on the street and it just popped. My shoe was full of blood. I was in some serious trouble. I was about fifty yards from the hotel and I just made it. The ambulance came about ten minutes later. I don't know if I need to go into this. I don't know if the event is important. But the result was. That's what led me to that lady. The wisest person I've ever met.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

GOING ON HIATUS SOON



Just to warn you all, this blog will be temporarily shutting down for a short while, starting in a few days. My spinal fusion surgery is set for Monday 3/19, and I'll be out of commission for at least a week.



After Sunday please check back, in about a week or ten days, and I'll have an update for you. After that, the posts will be sporadic until I'm able to spend more time sitting up! Heh! Scheise....



Just to warn you, during the time I'm away I will very likely turn off my "comment" section in order to avoid invasion and takeover by trolls:



I will see about posting a couple of more times prior to my absence, but with all I have to do to get ready for the surgery, I might not get it done. Anyway:

Cheers!

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

*TURTLE ON A FENCE POST

While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75 year old Texas rancher, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to former Texas Govenor Geoge W. Bush and his going to the White House.

The old man said, "Well , ya know, Bush is a "post turtle".

Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a "post turtle" was.

The old rancher said, "When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post turtle."

The old man saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to explain, "You know he didn't get there by himself, he doesn't belong there, he doesn't know what to do while he's up there, and you just want to help the dumb shit get down and move on"

Sunday, March 04, 2007

WHO WILL STOP THE NEXT WAR?

LET'S NOT JUST PASS HER OFF AS SOMEONE WHO PEOPLE DON'T TAKE SERIOUSLY...


Fun and games from the Conservative Policital Action Conference, broadcast on C-SPAN on March 2, at which former Mass. Gov. Willard MITT ROMNEY (R-MA), prior to Coulter’s appearance, said:

“I am happy to hear that after you hear from me, you will hear from Ann Coulter. That is a good thing. Oh yeah! Now, I think it's always very important to get the views of moderates. Now, I know there are a few here from the mainstream media, and they're probably surprised that we're here in these record numbers.”

(Previously, Coulter has put “even money” on Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) “[c]oming out of the closet,” said Bill Clinton shows “some level of latent homosexuality,” and called Vice President Al Gore a “total fag" [July 27, MSNBC's "Hardball”])

COULTER: “I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot,’ so I — so kind of an impasse, can’t really talk about Edwards.”

Audience members said “ohhh” and then cheered.

Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese issued the following statement: “We demand that every single Presidential candidate in attendance at this conference, along with Vice President Cheney stand up and publicly condemn this type of gutter-style politics. If not, then their silence will be deafening to the vast majority of Americans who believe this type of language belongs nowhere near the discussions about the future of our country.”

Statement from Howard Dean: “There is no place in political discourse for these kind of hate-filled and bigoted comments. While Democrats and Republicans may disagree on the issues, we should all be able to agree that this kind of vile rhetoric is out of bounds. The American people want a serious, thoughtful debate of the issues. Republicans–including the Republican presidential candidates who shared the podium with Ann Coulter today–should denounce her hateful remarks.”

The following material is from MEDIA MATTERS:

It was not the first time Coulter has smeared a prominent Democrat with a homophobic epithet, and it is not the first time that Coulter has ridiculed Edwards. Will the media call on Republican presidential hopefuls attending the CPAC conference to denounce her smear?

Back to the CPAC meeting, when asked by an audience member: "What do you think of Governor Romney's candidacy for presidency?"

COULTER: "What do I think of Governor Romney's candidacy for presidency? I think he's probably our best candidate. I mean, I think it is fair to say -- and this is coming from someone who supported Pete DuPont, Alan Keyes, Pat Buchanan, Steve Forbes. So, you know, it's not like I won't go for an underdog. But I think we have to be serious about this, and I think our choice is among Gingrich, Giuliani, McCain and Romney. And Giuliani is very, very liberal. When this country gets to the point -- I mean, I have a love letter to him in my current book, Godless. What he did for New York was magnificent. But when this country gets to the point where both presidential candidates support abortion, I think we can hang it up as a country.

"And McCain, I think has some problems, because everyone who supports him would have to switch party registrations to vote for him. I love Gingrich. I think he's brilliant. He was crucial, the man for his time. We don't know if he's running for president, but assuming he is, I kind of think his time has passed, and I don't know, you know, it could come back again, like '80s music, but I think his time is over. And you have to say about Romney, he tricked liberals into voting for him. I like a guy -- I like a guy who hoodwinks liberals so easily. And also, the one thing that I have a very soft spot for is that I love Mormons. And the reason why I love Mormons, well, among other things, is -- you may have forgotten this -- Bill Clinton in Utah in 1992 came in third in Utah. Now, that's a fine state.

Coulter also touted Romney's position on gay rights, saying:

"And of course, if you're working for a Republican candidate, you'll meet some nice heterosexual guys. By the way, before I let that slide, I do want to point out one thing that has been driving me crazy with the media, how they keep describing Mitt Romney's position as being "pro-gays, and that's going to upset right-wingers." Well, you know, screw you, I'm not anti-gay. We're against gay marriage. I don't want gays to be discriminated against. I mean, I think we have, in addition to blacks, I don't know why all gays aren't Republicans. I think we have the pro-gay position, which is anti-crime and for tax cuts. Gays make a lot of money, and they're victims of crime. I mean, the way -- no, they are. They should be with us. But the media portrays us. If they could get away with it, they would start saying, you know, "Mitt Romney, he's pro-civil rights, and that's going to upset conservatives." No. OK. Sorry, go ahead."


The following is from www.editorandpublisher.com :

Kevin Madden, a spokesman for Romney: “It was an offensive remark. Governor Romney believes all people should be treated with dignity and respect."

Brian Jones, a spokesman for McCain: “The comments were wildly inappropriate.”

Ed Morrissey on his Captain's Quarters: "Yeah, that's just what CPAC needs -- an association with homophobia. Nice work, Ann."

A blogger at Michelle Malkin's Hot Air site wrote: "I’m no fan of John Edwards, but that’s just a stupid joke. It’s over the line. The laughter it generated across the room was more than a little annoying. Last year it was 'raghead.' This year it’s calling John Edwards a 'faggot.' Two years in a row, Coulter has finished up an otherwise sharp CPAC routine with an obnoxious slur that liberals will fling at conservatives for years to come. Thanks, Ann." (Malkin also disapproved of Coulter' remarks, for what it's worth. For those who are unaward that Malkin is not just a talker but also an author, "In Defense of Internment" is her work...)

The New York Times' Adam Nagourney (who failed to mention the crack about Edwards, in observing Saturday in the paper): "The conference drew thousands of attendees, many of whom waited in a long line out the door for a late-afternoon appearance by Ann Coulter, the conservative author and commentator." (Later Saturday he posted a blog item at www.nytimes.com that did discuss the Coulter crack. For Sunday's paper he elicited this reply from Coulter: “C’mon, it was a joke. I would never insult gays by suggesting that they are like John Edwards. That would be mean.”)

The Washington Post covered the conference but did not mention Coulter at all in its news report. Neither did the Associated Press, which also attended. UPI did mention the "faggot" quote in its report.

The Los Angeles Times on Saturday quoted Coulter and even put the controversy in a headline. It closed the article: "A Giuliani spokeswoman said she had not heard the speech, and a Romney spokesman did not return calls late Friday."

The Post's Dana Milbank, in a column for the Saturday paper, observed: "Ann Coulter used an anti-gay slur to describe John Edwards (the line drew applause) and asked: 'Did Al Gore actually swallow Michael Moore?' When a questioner asked Coulter why she praises marriage but broke off so many engagements, she responded by calling the questioner ugly."

Coulter's column is distributed by Universal.

Back to MEDIA MATTERS:

The incident at CPAC suggests at least two questions:

Will the media -- including the "mainstream media" figures who Romney said attended his speech -- ask Romney whether he will repudiate Coulter's apparent endorsement?

Will the media ask the other Republican presidential candidates and potential candidates participating in CPAC -- including Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, Duncan Hunter, and Mike Huckabee -- whether they will seek the votes of the CPAC attendees who cheered Coulter's smear of Edwards?

From the weblog "Blue Mass. Group":

David notes Ann Coulter's unsurprising childish viciousness below; John Edwards' campaign has responded (in the voice of his campaign manager David Bonior):

Dear Friend,

Did you hear about Anne Coulter's speech this afternoon attacking John? A friend just forwarded me the video and it's one of the worst moments in American politics I've seen.

I can't bring myself to even repeat her comments. Her shameless display of bigotry is so outrageous you actually have to see for yourself to believe it.

This is just a taste of the filth that the right-wing machine is gearing up to throw at us. And now that it's begun, we have a choice: Do we sit back, or do we fight back?

I say we fight. Help us raise $100,000 in "Coulter Cash" this week to show every would-be Republican mouthpiece that their bigoted attacks will not intimidate this campaign. I just threw in 100 bucks. Will you join me? Just click here.

Coulter's attack was no accident. It happened on national television at one of the year's biggest conservative conferences. Dick Cheney and most of the Republican candidates were in the audience. She was even introduced by Mitt Romney."

SNAVE'S NOTES: She is disgusting. While it may be easy to imagine her in the crosshairs of the scope on a powerful hunting rifle, I think we should all remember that as perverse as it might seem in her case, we all have the right to say what we think in America. I'd never deny her the right to speak her opinion; that is a protected and cherished right which we all have. I have to remind myself in troublesome cases such as hers, that the right needs to be preserved. I could choose to ignore her, but I believe her viciousness and the appeal it seems to hold for some of us should not be ignored. My hope is that the conservatives among us will not be entertained and subsequently energized by her vicious remarks, but will instead realize that her exercising of her rights has negative repercussions for conservatives as a whole. My hope is also that we will all appeal to our own sense of common decency and renounce Ann Coulter and her hateful comments. She continues to become a caricature of herself, constantly pushing the limits of human decency.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

*FOOD FOR THOUGHT

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17388702/?GT1=9145

I will admit I am one of those who don't like hearing the expression "That's gay" used by kids (and some adults) in reference to something they find stupid, distasteful, or disagreeable. I have, on a number of occasions, asked middle school students not to use that expression because it may be offensive to a number of other people who either are or are not homosexual. They just about always respond by saying they hear it used on "South Park".

I love "South Park", despite the fact there are moments on the show from time to time that make me squirm! I'm not in the know on the origins of "That's gay", but did it start on "South Park"? If so, do the show's creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have similar sentiments to those of my native-Missourian grandmother who died in 1987 at age 91? She used to say "Why did they have to take such a nice word as 'gay' and attach it to something so awful?" It always made me squirm to hear my grandmother say that, but is the current use of "That's gay" in the sense people like to use it a kind "Back atcha"? Stone and Parker appear to dislike a lot of things, and they tend to not treat one person or group any worse than they treat the next one.

I tend to agree with most people who suggest that the use of "That's gay" attaches a negative connotation to homosexuality. Obviously there are quite a few homophobic people in America. Is the way they embrace this expression a way for them to "legitimize" their homophobia, because so many other people use the expression too?

Maybe, maybe not, maybe it's all relative... but I think it is food for thought.
RichardDawkins.net